Thread by @Heidi_Cuda

Anyone ever figger out what was wrong with Mitch McConnell’s health?

Two years ago, @KenLevy2020 and I wrote about how unhealthy “Mutating Mitch” is for democracy.

https://twitter.com/millenpolitics/status/1054920718415097856

1/ Me, 10/23/2018—When this gruesome and uncivil war for the soul of democracy is but a distant memory, with some perpetrators long behind bars, I will reflect back on the allies I made in the trenches of truth.

2/ The brave-hearts who spoke truth to power and wouldn’t stand down, and those who understood the gravity of the depravity.

3/ One such brave-heart is @KenLevy2020–Holt B. Harrison Professor of Law at the Paul M. Herbert Law Center, Louisiana State University. Prof. Levy wasted no time speaking truth to power, publishing a viral and virulent post-election op-ed on the psychopathy of the cult of Trump.

4/ Levy, whose areas of expertise include criminal theory, constitutional interpretation, metaphysics, early modern philosophy and ethics, says he was just calling it as he saw it.

5/ “In 2011, I had published a law review article called ‘Dangerous Psychopaths,’ and I’d done a lot of reading about psychopaths, particularly John Wayne Gacy,” says Levy.

6/ “Not all psychopaths are criminals—some of the smarter ones are actually successful professionals. I’d observed about 18 months of Trump campaigning. Like many other people, I thought that once he’s actually President and not just campaigning for the position, he might pivot.”

7/ “When Trump didn’t pivot, I thought that he’d lose many of his supporters. And when I saw that he wasn’t losing his supporters, that’s when I wrote the article.”-@KenLevy2020 10/23/2018

8/ A close observer of the stories that lurk beneath the headlines, Levy says that, dangerous as Trump is, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is arguably even more dangerous.

9/ LÜGENPRESSE: Levy explains that while the media wastes time giving free coverage to the Trump crime family and their exasperating whines of “lügenpresse,” McConnell has already reshaped our courts for decades to come.

10/ “MUTATING MITCH”
“Even if we flip the Senate in November, McConnell’s already packed the federal judiciary with dozens of right-wing zealots. As a result, many Americans, both defendants and plaintiffs, may not be getting fair trials for the next few decades,” says Levy.

11/ It’s all familiar turf for Levy, whose latest book is “Free Will, Responsibility and Crime: An Introduction”.

12/ To his point: real damage is occurring in real time. McConnell is mutating our courts. By October 2018, McConnell and Trump had confirmed 84 judges in two years, overwhelmingly white male and many of whom were deemed unqualified and virulently opposed by civil rights groups.

13/ “A judge is supposed to be as fair, impartial, and objective as possible,” says @KenLevy2020. “They’re supposed to be above the fray. Ideologues are just the opposite. They will not let the particular facts of any case get in the way of their agenda.”

14/ So what can we expect? “Trump’s appointees will almost certainly be favoring corporations over individuals, the rich over the less rich, whites over minorities, Christians over Muslims, and fetuses over women.”-@KenLevy2020

15/ “They already have a preconception about who should win and who should lose these cases without even being aware of the particular facts, which is precisely the opposite of what we should expect from a fair and impartial judge.”-@KenLevy2020

16/ For the very same reason, Levy would oppose a Democratic president nominating, and a Democratic Senate confirming, left-wing ideologues to the judiciary.

17/ “We want trial judges who can, as fairly and objectively as possible, adjudicate the facts and appellate judges who can, as fairly and objectively as possible, adjudicate the law. Not judges who have preconceived biases and are motivated to act on—rather than resist—biases.”

18/ Levy says that the only hope for democracy is to flip the Senate and take power out of McConnell’s hands. He says that Trump can, of course, still try to push judges through, but they would be much more rigorously vetted.

19/ All of this is part of a long game (and one that Republicans have been playing for nearly a decade).

20/ “When Obama was President, McConnell simply blocked many of his nominees and kept these positions vacant. Merrick Garland was the most infamous example, but he was hardly the only example.”-@KenLevy2020 10/23/2018

21/ “But since Trump was inaugurated in early 2017, McConnell, with his bare 51-49 majority, has been ruthlessly confirming one right-wing zealot after another. And, unfortunately, once they’re in, they’re almost impossible to get out.”-@KenLevy2020

22/ “So if we don’t take the power out of McConnell’s hands, there is very little that Democrats and independents can do. McConnell is immune to considerations of fairness, justice, or bipartisanship.”-@KenLevy2020 10/23/2018

23/ JUDGE SHAMING—Levy says that “judge shaming” may be the only course of action if we fail in the midterms.

24/ “I hope that there are already enough judges on our trial and appellate courts, appointed by previous presidents, who try to shame the new judges into abandoning their ideology and becoming ‘good’, that is to say, fair and impartial, judges.”-@KenLevy2020

25/ Levy says that he hopes in particular that, Justice Chief Roberts, who seems to be concerned with the legacy and reputation of the Supreme Court, will at least sometimes adopt this approach toward Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.

26/ Wishful thinking, however, isn’t bankable. “We can only hope for the best if we don’t flip the Senate, and hope is not a very powerful tool,” says Levy.

He says that a few commentators are starting to seriously float the idea of “court packing,” an idea going back to FDR.

27/ Court packing is adding “extra” justices to the Supreme Court (and possibly “extra” judges to some lower courts) in an effort dilute the power of Trump’s recent appointees and right-wing justices and judges more generally.

28/ “For many years, we have assumed that the Supreme Court must have eight or nine justices,” says Levy. “But the Constitution does not say this. It does not specify a number. It would be perfectly consistent with the Constitution to have eleven or thirteen justices.”

29/ “So if the Court veers too far to the right in the next two years, and if a Democrat wins the White House in 2020, he or she might think about adding two to four more moderate or liberal justices...

30/ “...so that the five conservative justices, who have been imposing their highly unpopular agenda on the rest of us, will finally flip from the majority to the minority.”-@KenLevy2020 10/23/2018

31/ DILUTE THE POWER:
Levy says that we have to consider any non-violent means we can to dilute the power of Trump and his sycophants.

“I haven’t seen anything like this before,” says Levy. “I’ve really never been so angry or afraid, at least about politics.”

32/ “And yet, as bad as Trump is, I think McConnell is even worse. Trump is just too stupid; his incompetence has prevented him from inflicting even greater destruction. But McConnell is not stupid. He knows exactly what he’s doing.”-@KenLevy2020

33/ “Over the last ten years, he has very deliberately inflicted serious damage on the Senate and the judiciary, two of the most powerful institutions in our constitutional democracy.”-@KenLevy2020 10/23/2020

34/ Levy says his studies of psychopathy have been useful in following the plot.

35/ “McConnell lacks basic moral understanding, including sympathy or empathy for others outside his tribe—that is, powerful people in the GOP. This is why there’s no point in appealing to his sense of fairness and justice. Like a psychopath, he has none.”-@KenLevy2020 10/23/2018

36/ CODA: “McConnell confirmed the fewest judges since President Truman during Obama’s last two years in office. So the reason Trump had 200 judgeships to fill in the first place is because McConnell obstructed.”-@YahooNews
news.yahoo.com/mcconnell-push…

37/ FINAL WORD:
Win Georgia, Save America.

https://twitter.com/heidi_cuda/status/1332731652976435200

38/ FOOTNOTE: Ailes and McConnell.

https://twitter.com/heidi_cuda/status/1084958935373701121